Count.I.Con 2016

The night before Count.I.Con, I hung out with Mary- Kate of The Fantasy Realm of Chicago as well as Stephanie Plus Verb - two amazing female geek bloggers who are absolutely talented. We often spoke in social media, and never get to hang out. So when they hosted a Pokemon event at Konak Pizza on August 26, 2016, I decided to make it a point to drop by, say "hi", and get to know them a bit more.

I was able to convince Stephanie Plus Verb to come hang out with us at Count.I.Con for the Saturday festivities. So glad to get to know her more and bring her to the fantastic event. This was her first time attending this convention.

Count.I.Con is an annual 3-day convention held at the Lake County Fair Grounds in Greyslake, IL - just about an hour away from Chicago. This was Count.I.Con's second year, and everyone I know who attended the event had a blast! To see our coverage from last year, click on this link and this link. The show was run by Team Ash: Ashley Witter --who drew my portrait in my personal business cards--and Ash Maczko). Both are known for their work on the sucessfull comic series, and upcoming card game Squarriors.

The convention featured a lot of renowned artists such as Greg Hildebrandt (known for his iconic illustration work for franchises such as "Star Wars" and "Lord of the Rings", as well as numerous DC and Marvel comics properties along with his brother, Tim); Lisa Lesman -Reinhold and Bill Reinhold (Badger, Punisher, Spiderman, Daredevil, Batman, and many, many others); Philip Moy (Power Puff Girls, GI Joe); Jeff Balke ( Grimm Fairy Tales, Urban Legends); Philo Barnhart (Little Mermaid), and many more. See below for the complete list of guests! :)

We stoped by to see our friends at PopcultHQ's booth- who had a fundraiser in honor of Manny Popoca, PopcultHQ's founder who passed away this year. All items were donated by the website's writers.

Here's some pics from last weekend's event:

The cosplay contest was run by We Are Cosplay- a local Chicago-land area group who volunteer in charity events regularly. Check out this article on the Cospys, where they honor and award their members for being involved in their volunteer events.

Pics from the cosplay contest here:

We also got to try the new Squarriors TCG, with art by Ashley Witter. Looking forward to learning the full instructions of the game in one of their play-testing events!

Definitely a great and affordable local comic book convention! I give it a 10 out of 10 for the spacious isles, programming, guest selections and over all con experience!

Here is the complete list of artists and featured guests from the event:

Greg Hildebrandt – Artist Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Magic the Gathering

Timothy Zahn – Author Star Wars, Dragonback, StarCraft

Bill Reinhold – Artist The Punisher, The Badger, The Prowler

Linda Lessmenn-Reinhold – Artist/colorist Spiderman, The Badger, Conan

Marie-Claude Bourbonnais – Cosplayer Costume production, Prop design, Cosplayer

Jeffery Moy – Artist Legionnaires, Star Trek, Defiance (Video game)

Philip Moy – Artist/Inker The Powerpuff Girls, World of Warcraft (Comic book), G.I. Joe

Ashley Witter – Artist/Writer Squarriors, Interview with the Vampire, Scorch

Mark Nelson – Artist Aliens, Godzilla, Magic the Gathering

Jim Nelson – Artist Hearthstone, Magic the Gathering, Dungeons & Dragons

Ali Cantarella – Artist The Hasty Pastry, Watercolor portraits, Pugs